fall inside a hole
Chin Chin Tram Reissue (1997)
First written April 12, 2024Additions December 2024, September 2025
In 1997 Tomy established October 14th as Plarail Day, releasing a special limited release train on that day every year until 2005. The initial few releases were reissues of older Plarail favorites, with the first being the Chin Chin Tram (ちんちんでんしゃ), a reissue of the late 1960s Plarail orange Chin Chin Tram (also ちんちんでんしゃ). An original Chin Chin Tram can be seen in the Plarail Museum.
Plarail Day Chin Chin Tram (1997)
The Plarail Day Chin Chin Tram (ちんちんでんしゃ) is an updated reissue of the late 1960s Plarail Chin Chin Tram depicting an old Japanese tram. The release comes in a slightly shorter than usual box and includes a single standing tree. The "Chin Chin" name comes from the ringing of the tram's bell, which is replicated on the original and this reissue. The original tram was a more orangey color and the cover of the box shows a more creamy tram but in person this version is really more yellow.
The 1960s version actually had liftable pantographs that were fairly fragile and are often missing or broken - this release just makes them part of the plastic tooling, as almost all other Plarail pantographs are. The box also shows that at some stage the tram had a complete cowl on the front, more similar to the real picture's tram, but the final version is raised along the bottom middle. The service number sticker is nice but it would have been cool to have a head mark like the original.
The battery sits in the rear unpowered car with the drive unit and bell mechanism taking up the front power car. The chassis is dated 1997 for this release and has the old curvy Tomy logo and a made in Thailand mark. The I7 sticker indicates this example was produced in September 1997, as I imagine the entire batch of the limited edition were. As far as I know, it has never been said how many of these Plarail Day products are produced each year.
The bell is struck by a small geartrain that is actually friction-driven by the rear left wheel, with a loose-fitting gear around a plastic protrusion around one of the shafts in the Thomas-type gearbox it uses. A second gear with a cam swings a striker back that hits the inside of the bell hanging down from the top of the body shell.
Because the bell mechanism is mechanical and friction-driven from the traction tires, pushing the tram by hand will also ring the bell, even if there is no battery inserted. The motor and gearbox on my example are a little noisy, click on the GIFs to see the video version with sound.
Plarail Fan Club Chin Chin Tram Old Setagaya Line Type (1998)
In 1998 for Plarail Day on October 14 a green version of the tram reissue was given away to Plarail Fan Club members as the Plarail Fan Club Chin Chin Tram Old Setagaya Line Type (ちんちん電車 旧世田谷線タイプ).
This train is one of only two releases I have seen with a partially printed, partially stamped production sticker - the other is the Fan Club Exclusive Plarail 40th Anniversary Album from 1999, which has mixed production stickers on the Plastic Train and Electric Plastic Train reissues. Most all other Thailand-production trains are printed.
Enoden (1999)
In 1999 the reissue Chin Chin Tram tooling was used to represent the Enoshima Electric Railway's Enoden (えのでん) (an abbreviation of Enoshima-Dentetsu Line) 300 series tram. It was first sold as an advance sale on October 10th, 1999 at the Railway Festival and sold only at the railway itself beginning in December 1999. The 300 series trams were first built in 1960. A stamp on the right side of the box gives the number of production - I think these may have been added at the railway being being sold, so it may instead count the order unpacked at the railway or something like that. I thought I had heard there were 300 of this initial type, but I don't have a source for that, and I might have gotten it confused with the 300 series number at some point. Certainly there were not thousands produced.
The initial release has yellow wheels and no side printing but does have a Kamakura (鎌倉) headmark and silver light reflector on both ends.
It has the ringing bell mechanism of the original reproduction, of course, and has the same chassis and battery layout. This example was produced in August 1999 ahead of the original October presale, but I kind of suspect that the whole batch which went on regular sale in December all came from this production run... It uses the Thomas-style drawbar coupling like the previous yellow Chin Chin Tram reproduction.
This release comes in a smaller box than most other Plarail releases in both height and length.
Hakone Tozan Railway (2000)
On August 4th, 2000 the Hakone Tozan Railway began selling a version of the Chin Chin Tram painted after their 100 series trams, with nice stickers and a realistic livery and classic yellow wheels. The box is similar to the Enoden box design but with a reddish-orange theme. It uses the new squared-off Tomy logo. The Hakone Tozan Railway tram can be seen in the Plarail Museum.
Enoden (2000)
With the original seemingly selling decently well, an updated version of the Chin Chin Enoden (えのでん) was released in October 2000. These releases both use the same box design - I am not sure if they were from the same print run, but the ST numbers are the same for both. Again, a sticker on the end of the box gives the number in the series.
The updates include changing the wheels to grey and the text added to the side of the tram - the EER is the Enoshima Electric Railway and the 303 identifies it as the formation 303 tram which was rebuilt from a 100 series tram in the late 1950s and used on the line until 2006, being scrapped in 2008.
The ringing bell mechanism is changed slightly to accommodate the bell being mounted to the chassis instead of the body shell - this was done at some point between the December 1999 Enodens and this 2000 release.
Interestingly, despite being produced after the earlier Chin Chin Tram reissue, this July 2000 Enoden is using the older Mickey Poppo style of coupling instead of the newer Thomas-series style. I do think that the Mickey Poppo style connector is pretty tough but with enough force any toy coupling system can and will be broken by children.
In 2001 a new Enoden Type 300 tooling was introduced and used for several years, and in 2002 the Hakone Tozan Railway also began selling a fresh tooling. Other Enoshima Electric Railway limited products continue to release to this day, with the most recent coming out in early 2024, and the Hakone Tozan Muha 2 type was last resold in 2023. The 2000 Enoden was, I think, the last time the reissue Chin Chin Tram tooling was used.